System safety engineering approach and concepts for autonomous work-machine applications

Autonomous machines are complex machines that are able to perform independent decision-making and to operate without operator’s continuous activities. Increasing autonomy and system complexity create new challenges to safety engineering. In this paper, we describe a safety engineering approach that has been developed in VTT together with Luke for autonomous work-machine applications in close collaboration with machine manufacturers and system suppliers. The main motivation has been to support early development phases of novel automation technologies and system operating concepts. The approach focuses on system-level safety issues arising from the shift from individual manual mobile machines to autonomous machinery systems. It utilizes elements from system safety engineering methods and guidelines adopted from the latest safety standards for autonomous or highly automated machinery, as well as the goal-based safety case approach to support safety qualification activities. The approach and methods have been successfully applied to identify and analyze autonomy related safety risks in several industrial cases